Ocean Liners: Speed and Style at the Victoria and Albert museum is an exhibition with some serious swagger. You might want to dress up for this one, as it’s all about the glitz and the glamour of the golden age of travel, and it might leave you feeling, well, a tad mundane. Ocean Liners is…
Art & Exhibition
Reviews of art exhibitions in London.
Art Smarts – Must-see London Exhibitions in 2018
Art lovers are in for a treat in 2018 as London revs its arty engines for what promises to be a triumphant year. Masters of the old and masters of the new are out in full swing this year, with painting, photography, sculpture and design making an appearance in museums and galleries across the capital….
King of Bling: Charles II at the Queen’s Gallery
The English weren’t as partial to the chopping of a royal head as the French were, but the story of this exhibition starts with the trial of Charles I, the ill-fated king whose head was to be severed from his body on the 30 January 1649. Fast forward to 1660 and enter his son, Charles…
Art Review – Modigliani at Tate Modern
I am doing something remarkable. I am a voyeur in an artist’s studio in Paris – in Montparnasse to be exact – for a full six and a half minutes. But, I am actually in London. I am gazing out of Amedeo Modigliani’s studio window, towards the smoky chimney tops and listening to the drizzling,…
Must-see London exhibitions in November
As London shifts into Christmas gear, it’s nice to know you can escape tinseltown’s seasonal madness from time to time, and what better way than with some art? How could you possibly fail to be impressed by the Impressionists in London at the Tate Britain or by Modigliani’s collection of nudes at Tate Modern? You…
Soutine’s Culinary Artistry
Monsieur Soutine had a knack for finding good staff. And he certainly liked a man in uniform. Bellboys, waiters, valets, pastry cooks and the occasional maid, would make their way from the grand hotels and restaurants of Paris’s Roaring Twenties onto his fiery canvases. London hasn’t seen a Soutine show for 35 years, but thanks…
Potty for Harry at the British Library
Can you believe it’s been 20 years since ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was first published? And just in time for Halloween, there’s an enchanting exhibition opening at the British Library. Harry Potter: A History of Magic is a treasure trove of rare books, manuscripts, magical objects and illustrations that will bewitch even the most cynical…
Egypt Uncovered at the Soane Museum
As if you needed an excuse to go and visit one of London’s best-loved museums, but I’m about to give you one. Over at the Soane Museum in Holborn, you can meet an Italian circus strongman turned Egyptologist, and discover tales of robbed tombs and a celebrity Pharaoh. Add to that a three-day candlelit Sarcophagus…
Must-see London exhibitions this October
You might be tempted to start hibernating this autumn, but don’t you dare! London is buzzing this October, from Opera, Passion, Power and Politics at the V & A, to the surreal Gerald Scarfe designs for stage and screen at the House of Illustration, to Reflections at the National Gallery and Spanish masterpieces at the…
Dancing with Degas
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas liked to draw women. He dabbled with horses as well, but really, it was the women that grabbed his voyeuristic attention, often of the dancing or bathing variety. These ethereal damsels are the subject of an exhibition opening on the 20th September at the National Gallery, a collection of thirteen paintings, pastels and…